Rev. Roger French

Valley Cathedral Children’s Home

In Jan/Feb 2010, we had a visit from a YWAM team. In addition to local outreaches to poor villages, they really interacted and spent time with the children almost every day as well. Here Flint, one of the young men is giving Toto some pointers on guitar playing. Kuya Bonjing, our faithful helper is sitting on the bench. Alleen is sitting in the foreground.

Flint enjoying some bubble blowing time with Alleen, while Toto practices what he learned. This YWAM team spent a lot of time with us, so I am going to take the time to give each of them honorable mention. Manny was also with this group, but was not present at the time the pictures were taken. I will write more about him at the end, and of how well he is doing.

Another member of the same YWAM team, Daniel, from Germany, enjoying some play time with Jenny and Annie. Daniel has continued to stay in touch with us. In December, he had his youth group in Germany make a card for each of the children and send it to us. It was really special. Daniel kindly translated the German for those who could not write English. We learned however, that Barbie Weir here, knows German quite well! We were grateful Daniel translated, though. It would have taken her a while to do it.

Another member of the YWAM team, Vergie, giving lots of love to the girls.
Hannah and Vergie, visiting with Renato. Also members of the same YWAM team.

Genevebe, another YWAM member, de-licing Stephanie’s hair while they have a good visit.

Katja from YWAM visiting with Patricia. Katja is also from Germany, but a different part than Daniel.

Joren from YWAM was particularly tall. Joren and Alleen became good friends. Here he is with Ton Ton and Ranny, helping to pick they are playing together at the despedida, or the mangoes from the tree. His height was a real asset going away party. for this job!

Here the YWAMers taking time to play games with the kids. (Notice how brown our grass is in February, the second month of the Dry Season down here.)

William, Mommy’s right hand man in the office, spending a little time with Alex. Philipp in a rare moment reading a story to Gilbert, Alex and Edrian. This picture is from February 2010. Philipp has since moved out to the Barracks, or the farm. Please keep him in your prayers.

Someone sent a plastic pair of roller skates which we let the boys use inside the cottage. Here Gilbert is trying to help Alleen stand on his feet. We love it when the older boys play well with the younger ones.

Someone donated two Battleship Games. On the left are Jason and Robin playing, with Edrian looking on. On the right are Steven & Arjay playing with Jonah looking on and a visiting neighbor child.

Tim has just shot an airplane into the air and Benedict and Alleen are all watching to see where it will land. You can tell it was a hot day.

Olan is a good climber and we needed something rescued from the top of the laundry room roof. He was delighted to do the task.

This is David. He has no siblings here and is a true orphan.

He is 8 yrs old, going on 9 now. He is standing in front of our laundry room. You can see Loida in the background washing clothes.

On a hot day last March, we got out this little pool for a few of the little boys. Alleen, Benedict and Renato are in the pool with David looking on. Again, notice how brown the grass is. It is amazing that every June it greens right back up.

Last March, Pete and Lita took time out of their busy schedule to play a game of kick ball with some of the kids. Everyone enjoyed themselves very much.

Tim and the boys having a good time playing a game in the sala of our cottage.

In April of last year, the Maxwell family visited again. They always pour themselves out to our kids here when they come. Here is Lisa Maxwell, the mother, teaching some of the boys how to play the Uno card game. Last year we showed more pictures of their family: her husband, Tom and their four daughters. They are stationed far north of Baguio as a missionary family.

Loida on the left and Ruby on the right, our faithful laundry ladies. Monday is a double laundry day. because no laundry is done on Sunday. I try to do our washing ahead for them since we get up at 4:30AM during the school schedule. I generally run six loads through the machines for just the boys cottage. The boys have more laundry for them to do than the girls, just because we have so many younger children. Generally when the children reach about 12 years of age, they wash their own clothes by hand. The girls’ cottage average age is older, so they have less little ones for Loida and Ruby to wash for.

Logging in the Philippines. Pete had a couple trees cut down in our yard, so that the three big mango trees we have in our yard could get more sunlight and produce more fruit. There were a couple coconut trees and a tamarind tree cut down. Our clean up crew from the logging.

Last March, Robin, John Mark and Ranny graduated from Pre-school. Here they wear graduation gowns when moving up from Pre-School to grade one, when moving from grade 6 to high school, when moving from high school to college, and of course when graduating from college.

In June of last year, just before the start of school, some of the staff plus Nerissa (our oldest girl) organized some “end of summer” games (June marks the beginning of school and thus the end of summer. It is also the beginning of the Rainy Season.) Following are a few pictures of the kids playing. It is hot, and Philipp is really panting carrying Annie on his shoulders in this game.

Here, the team had to go through or be put through the “spider web” one by one, without touching the webbing. They invented all kinds of methods. Steven is being hoisted through in this shot.

Here Emie is trying her hand at going through feet first, while Christy, who was visiting, looked on to be sure she did not touch the web.

The kids had to crawl through a sack tunnel, with a little mud thrown inside. Here Ton Ton is coming out, with Nanay Beth holding the opening. Steven is looking on.

After the tunnel, they had to hop in a sack to the next station. Here Ton Ton is hopping along.

Another part of the race was walking, holding two balls in your arms and one in between your legs. Here is Alex giving it a good go.

Last day of the games was breakfast at the beach. It was really windy and the waves were BIG for here. I think you can make out the big surf in the background, about ready to drench us seconds after this picture was taken. The under tow that day was very strong. We had a service, then breakfast then a swim that morning. The water was delightfully warm.

Several times a month, a Saturday morning service is held here at Valley for the children of poor families in the neighboring squatter’s village, Hulug langit. High school or college girls from the church supervise it. A Bible story is told followed by singing and a hearty soup or mirienda. In many cases, it may be their breakfast for that day.

Alleen and Benedict preparing to go to Nursery school. Since September, Jhonel has also joined them in Nursery.

Teacher Grace is their teacher. She is new to the Valley school this year and we have found her a gem to work with. She is a very sweet sister in the Lord.

This picture shows what good friends they are almost all the time.
April, Patricia, Stephanie and Annie on our slide.
April, Patricia and Hannah dressed for Girl Scout Day at school, which is every Wednesday.

Here I am teaching Toto how to play checkers on a chess board. I do not know how to play chess, though he does very well himself. We did not have a checkers board so we improvised.

In September, a group of college students came to do an outreach with our children. They had put a lot of effort in the preparation for art projects and games and had a really good time. Our kids really enjoyed it.

Here are the younger children showing Papa Tim the pictures they drew with the help of the visiting college students.

The students are reading a story to our younger children. The college students playing some games outside with the kids.

Edrian, Benedict’s older 7 yr old brother, having a good time at the games. Edrian and Benedict arrived in January, 2010. Ali is sitting right behind him.

We went to Canada for 5½ weeks this year.

When we got back from Canada last September, we handed out caps that someone there donated, and stuffed toys donated by my parents. The boys had fun putting the stuffed animals on top of their head and putting the cap on top. It was their fun activity for a while.

The day after we arrived back from Canada in September, these two brothers joined us: Rosselle, age 10 and Jhonel, age 6. They have been real sweethearts, easy to care for and blending in well. Jhonel is halfway between the age of Benedict and Edrian. So sometimes he plays with Benedict & Alleen and sometimes with Edrian & Ton Ton. Rosselle is in grade 3 with Jason. He had taken grade 3 before coming here, but because he spoke no English, Florence our principal, knew he would not make it in grade 4, so he is taking grade 3 again. He has been a big help to Jason, inspiring Jason to take more of an interest in his school work and enjoy school. Rosselle and Jhonel are both coming very well with their English in just a few short months. Rosselle is very gentle and caring with all our younger boys and we appreciate him very much.